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The Lucky Ones Left - Chapter 2

CW: Strong language

Sara gently ran their claws through the fur under my chin, scratching at the bottom and side of my muzzle as I pressed my head into their caress. The slim gray fox pulled away slightly and retracted their claws, although they continued to pet with the claw tips that still stuck out.

"You can't press into it so hard, I'm gonna scratch you." Their voice was soft and soothing, almost a whisper.

"You're too gentle with me, Sara," I replied, half-joking.

"My claws are sharper than yours, Eetu."

"And my fur is thicker than yours. It feels nice. If it hurts, I'll back off," I reassured them.

"Alright."

They tentatively pushed their claws back out and pressed their paw back into my chin, ruffling claws and padded fingertips through my cheek fluff.

"Mmmmm." The sound escaped me before I could stop it.

I felt their chest vibrate under my head as they laughed.

"Seems like you're enjoying this a bit too much, huh?"

"I told you!" I tried to sound playful, but honestly I was embarrassed. I'd been discouraged by those around me from being too affectionate from a young age, and from being affectionate at all with someone of the same sex. Even though Sara was always happy to see it come through, there was always a pang of guilt associated. I tried my best, but two decades of intense indoctrination still impeded upon my thoughts in spite of it.

"Oh, dude!" They suddenly lurched and sat upright, withdrawing their hand from my muzzle and leaving me sitting with my legs off the side of the bed.

"What's up?" I asked, hiding my mild displeasure with the sudden lack of chin and cheek scritches.

"I totally forgot to let you know earlier, did Alice and Rich tell you?"

"Huh? No, what's up?"

"They want us to go with them!" The gray fox smiled widely as they answered.

"What? For their honeymoon?" I asked, caught entirely off guard.

"Babe, they've been married for over a year," Sara replied, even more confused.

"I'd assumed they just hadn't had the money after their wedding."

"No... Well yeah, actually, but this isn't their honeymoon. Are we going? I can get PTO." The gray fox looked at me expectantly, and while I hated to break their heart...

"I don't know, I'll have to see what work looks like. Two weeks in August, right?" I sighed lightly as I ran my tongue over my canines in thought.

Sara eyed me wearily

"Eetu, it's April."

"I know, but we've also got to get this game ready to ship by mid-September."

"Yeah. Crunch."

"Most likely."

They stared at me in contemplative silence for several seconds.

"You deserve better than how they treat you."

"I... we can't live without both of our incomes," I replied. I agreed with them, but... what was I supposed to do about it, realistically? I couldn't afford to quit, and if we unionized? Well, in that case we obviously just hadn't been productive enough to justify our continued employment.

"Yeah." They gritted their teeth and sighed deeply. "I know."

They moved to sit next to me and placed their head on my shoulder.

"You should quit," the gray fox added confidently.

"What?" I thought we'd just established that wasn't an option.

The fox lifted their head back up and locked eyes with me.

"No, really. You come home every day absolutely exhausted, work way later than you should, get harassed by your coworkers for being with me, and you go through all of it for an insultingly small paycheck. You deserve better!"

The small fox seemed to get angrier as they continued, and I could see suppressed rage and undeserved guilt creep into their piercing cerulean eyes as they mentioned the harassment.

"Fuck the game, fuck your coworkers. Just quit. We can play it by ear. I will literally move to a shitty, cockroach-infested studio apartment if we have to, I just can't watch these people strip-mine you anymore. We can save up enough for a little bit without your income, go on a nice vacation to decompress, and figure out what to do from there. Sure we'll have to be even more frugal than usual for a while, but when haven't we had to do that?"

I paused briefly. I'd had the thought many times before, and now that Sara was saying the same I really did want to, but...

"I mean it's a nice thought, but it's just... we know what's going to happen to us right now. I don't want to give that up without a solid backup plan."

"We do know what's going to happen to us. Every day, you're going to go to work, have your coworkers call us slurs to your face, get shamed into staying late and picking up work for those lazy fucks because you had the gall to get upset about it, come home and eat some cheap processed bullshit because we can't afford fuckall else, and then fall asleep so you can do it all again the next day after we barely get to spend any time together because you're just that fucking spent. How long are things going to go on like this?"

Their indignation rose with each sentence.

"But you have a job you're happy with, even if it doesn't pay well. I don't want to take that from you, and I don't know if we'll be able to afford to continue living here even if I do find another job."

"I'd rather be happy with you than happy with my job. Right now, I'm not. Honestly, Eetu? I'm fucking miserable, and so are you. I hate seeing you like this, and we hardly get to spend any time together. Please."

Sara saying they were miserable hurt. That I could do something about it and chose not to is even worse. I couldn't keep doing that to them.

"Alright. We'll try to save what we can and we'll see where we're at in August. I don't know how much we can realistically reduce our expenses, but... we'll try to figure something out. If we have enough to get by for a bit, I'll quit."

Sara teared up and threw themself against my side. I barely avoided falling over from the sudden weight plowing into me, but I was steadied by their arms wrapping around me and pulling me back upright.

"Thank you," they almost whimpered, as if they were afraid I didn't intend to follow through. Honestly, I wasn't so sure this would pan out myself. But, after what they told me I owed it to them to at least try.